An 'Arriva' bus as distinct from….what, exactly?
What kind of bus? Oh, an Arriva bus.
Please read this story and work out what’s wrong with it. I’ve given you blatant clues.
timesofmalta.com reports:
Motorcyclist injured following crash with ARRIVA bus
A motorcyclist was injured this afternoon following a collision with an Arriva route bus in Triq il-Mediterran, Pembroke. He is not in a critical condition.
The police said the 35-year-old motorcyclist, an American who lives in Sliema, was riding a Kymco Agility in the direction of Bahar ic-Caghaq. The King Long Arriva bus was being driven towards St Julian’s by a 24-year-old man from Fgura.
A route bus is a route bus is a route bus. Specifying the operator might be a salient piece of information if there were two or more operators in the market (and even then, who cares), but when there is one operator only, it’s a route bus, not an Arriva bus.
When somebody is involved in a serious accident, the same newspaper tells us that he was “rushed to hospital in an ambulance” (as opposed to, one imagines, a helicopter) and not “rushed to hospital in a Department of Health ambulance”, still less “rushed to hospital in a Department of Health Ford (or whoever makes them) ambulance”.
Buses were involved in accidents all the time before last summer, but I don’t think I ever read a news report that told me how “a privately-owned yellow Plaxton bus” rammed a car or mowed down an old lady.
They were route buses.
So are these, because they replaced them.
Our news media should be careful about things like this, because they’re helping to shape the language in the wrong way. It’s bad enough that in the 21st century, we still had great swathes of people calling buses ‘charabancs’. All we need now is for Arriva to become the new word for bus.
Gejt bl-Arriva.
Stennejt l-Arriva.
Kemm qeghdin idumu l-Arriva.
Did you come in on Arriva?
No, sorry, I came by bus.
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I was sorely tempted to comment on timesofmalta.com’s board re this utter stupidity.
We have another ‘Nugget’ on our hands, or rather, lips.
Tal-linja – Le, b’l-Arriva…
Also, could they have spared us the detail… a “King Long bus” – a “Kymco Agility” motorcycle.
FFS.
‘King Long’ bus and ‘Kymco Agility’ motorcycle were mentioned by the reporter just to show how observant he was when he read the police report.
His next raise may very well depend on such astute observation to details.
The whole issue is not the accident but the bus being owned by Arriva. The Times has from day one opened its cannons on Arriva. They ( the Times ) should call its on line website Arriva daily bulletin.
It’s like saying Cutex (sorry Cutics, Maltese pronunciation) for nail polish, Hoover for a vacuum cleaner…
Another example of The Times’ sinking to the level of the rabble…or else it has an axe to grind.
Unbelievable. “bla agenda”
Maltese bus customer: ‘Can I have a return ticket?’
Polite bus driver: ‘Where to, please?’
Maltese bus customer: ‘Back here of course, you fool.’
Of course only Arriva buses, being the devil´s public transport proposal, could cause such a horrific accident.
I still have to understand what all the hype about the supposed Arriva “fiasco” is about.
OK, the service was certainly not perfect from day one, but it has been one big tropical storm in an island teacup.
Calling for the Minister to resign, rather than expecting him to ensure that Arriva deliver what they were paid for, is laughable, and truly sad.
Sad to note too, the news published on Thursday that the number of bus commuters is significantly higher during the same month last year went almost unnoticed – only 6 comments on timesofmalta.com and no further commentaries in the media.
Are you surprised that there were only six comments at the news that there were significantly more riders in August than a year ago? That was a ‘good news’ story.
This is typical of the reaction to any piece of good news connected with government initiatives, NSO and EU statistics and other similar stories.
Give them garbage coming from Joseph and the LP’s mouths and you will find hundreds of comments defending El Capo and his gang. Usual names, usual inane comments, usual bad spelling and usual envy.
It seems that the word ‘Arriva’ is being associated with some negative traits including dangerous and arrogant driving.
If you use the word ‘bus’ that connotation is not there.
So when we mean to say that the bus is being driven in a dangerous and irresponsible manner, then the word Arriva is more appropriate so as to have an abundantly clear communication.
What on earth is arrogant driving?
Perhaps they mix up ‘arrogance’ with ‘aggressive’?
Dim wits.
Exactly my thoughts when I read this report … why in heavens has The Times embarked on this crusade against Arriva?
We may well be in the 21st century but most pre Arriva buses were, for all intents and purposes, charabancs with a roof.
gejt bil-bass :o)
Imn’Alla ma kontx warajk.
oh my god that was funny even though it was cool only in 1982, thanks for bringing that up again. Where would we be today without that comment of yours?
You’re quite right of course …..but as an aside….
It’s been a long time since I used a bus, but I remember that the seats on some of the ones I did use were so hard that referring to them as “char-a-bancs” may have been more appropriate!
Rather than charabanc I think the use of Hoover for all carpet sweepers, Kenwood for all food mixers, Nugget for all shoe cleaners and Cutex for all nail polishes would be a better analogy.
Arriva seems to be going down the same lane…………provided it fits, of course.
Biro …
I like “Arriva bus”. It has a ring of yearning, hope and reward.
Anzi, mhux bit-ton ta’ Jonny l-Kajboj… l-Errajva mann… stejt ov di art bassissss…
Nhar il-Gimgha fil-ghaxija qghadt nara lil-Peppi Azzopardi jipprezenta l-programm Arriva.
Excellent point above, Daphne.
Alas, I must report that “l-Arriva” has become the new word for bus. It seems that the word “tal-linja” has stuck to the old system.
One might argue that the new bus service, with its new routes, interchanges and uniform fleet of turquoise buses is so radically different from the previous system, with its yellow, individual buses and their colourful drivers that calling it by a different name is not at all unreasonable.
Arriva as opposed to what most Maltese unfortunately call “private”?
The Times’ standard has long gone downhill.
You are so right! I’m asking myself: why the hell does The Times say somebody was involved in a crash with an Arriva bus. It’s a bus. Full stop.
And, what I hate most: gejt bl-Arriva. I hate it with a passion. It is so crass. You’re really spot on.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111015/letters/Bus-services-is-threatening-livelihoods-2-.389249
The sad thing is that none of the commenters realised that Allan Gatt’s contribution (whoever he is) was tongue-in-cheek.
Typical, you have to spell everything out.
Inhawwdu biss. Xarabank, tal-linja, il-prajvit (ghall-private buses), u issa l-Arriva.
Jiena nhossni komda nghid bus ghall-heffa ghax kelma qasira (mhux ghax jiena tal-pepe).
L-Scammel ghadu jezisti fil-fatt.
U x-xufiera li kellna qabel kienu jirreferu ghall-“bus” bhala it-trakk.
Gejt bl-Arriva?
Le, gejt bil-bass, ghaliex issa bil-Malti hekk qed jispellu; niehdu l-kelma Ingliza u nuzaw l-alfabet Malti.
Ma tantx tinstema tajjeb hux. Ghalhekk ghal-zmien twil in-nies kienu jghidu li jigu bix-xarabank u, wara, sa z-zmien meta waslet l-Arriva – dik li dejjem jghidu ma tasal qatt – in-nies kienu jigu b’tal-linja.
Stepney was a British tyre manufacturer and look where it is now.
NOT only in Malta –
“How is it that the word stepney, and not the place in London called Stepney, came to mean ‘substitute wheel’ or ‘replacement wheel’ in a non-British variety of the English language? The word is spoken in Bangladesh, India, and Malta, all countries once colonised by the British.
Well, according to the OED, the word comes from the screw-on spare wheels that were manufactured in Stepney Street, Llanelli, South Wales. The wheels were exported to countries throughout the British Empire, and the word stepney stuck. So successful was this accessory of Empire that the stepney wheel was incorporated into the Llanelli coat of arms.” http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/dic/oed/stepney/stepney.html
PS: It-Times spiccat.
I am disappointed by the lack of detail in the article – it didn’t even tell us the colour of the bus.
By the way, that’s not a King Long bus in the photo.
No, King Long aka Cummins was the one Manu Maltes wanted to ride.
Well yesterday I used the Arriva buses as I intended to drink (and actually I did).
[Daphne – Silvio, you didn’t use the Arriva buses. You took the bus, pure and simple. There is no other kind of bus to take.]
It was quite fast and reliable and even the night service.
I think the problems are mostly in the mornings as people are using their cars because they do not trust Arriva.
[Daphne – ‘They do not trust Arriva’. Correction: they find the bus service unreliable.]
The result is a lot of traffic jams and hence the Arriva buses are taking longer to go from A to B.
[Daphne – Not the Arriva buses, Silvio, but just ‘the buses’. I’m sorry, friends, but I’m going to start pointing this out, if you don’t mind, because it’s really getting on my nerves.]
Last week I had to take my nephew to Uni as he had been 1 hour on the bus stop (whenever there should be one to Uni every 20 minutes).
I watched Dr Gatt on TV news today and I was heartened to hear him acknowlidging the problems, and going back to some old direct routes. Also how they are and will be vigilant on Arriva to deliver.
[Daphne – Ah, appropriate use of the word ‘Arriva’, because we’re talking about the actual company, not the blinking bus.]
Still I did not like the excuse that they were too avantgarde – was that avantgarde? Who were the experts paid four hundred thousand Euro after this fiasco? Were they foreigners, had to be for certain decisions.What waste of money!
[Daphne – Foreigners, those evil people…]
Let me put it this way. The ‘Kunsill Nazzjonali Tal-Ilsien Malti’ should not be changing any letters in the word Arriva when it eventually takes its place in our spectacular Maltese vocabulary. I mean, with so many ‘gijsers’ in this country, the word is bound to be included.
Silvio, the present feeder route system works well in all countries but not in Malta. Should that not tell you something about a nation’s resistance to change, but in other cases the nation wants change for the sake of change?
It has nothing to do with change, although if change had to happen everyone seems to have expected ARRIVA to provide a taxi service.
As far as I know the new system was intended to be a new bus service, no more, no less.
ARRIVA and MTO mistake was that they tackled the issue in reverse. They first went with the ‘new, improved and confusing’ routes when they should have started with what the public was familiar with for decades and gradually improved or added to the existing routes.
It appears that everyone in Malta desperately wants to go to Valletta or to the hospital and nowhere else.
I really can’t understand why most want to go to Valletta or Mater Dei too!
The reporting in the times has become a disaster.
Many of the boys and girls manning The Times newsroom are not even a shadow of their predecessors, and those gentlemen used to call themselves plain old reporters, not ‘journalists’.
They lack the qualities to carry out such duties in the supposedly best daily in Malta, and seems to be a hidden agenda in most of them. This can be seen in the headlines and the stories they present us with on a daily basis.
Wahomi ..what works in other countries does not mean it is tailor made for Malta. Do not tell me that a journey that used to take half an hour by BUS and now is taking double that time is “revolutionary” and it is good because that what happens in other countries .So it is being admited that we were better !
Overheard at Tigne’ Point:
Mother telling off her daughter:
“Aqtaghha ghax nibaghtek bl-Arriva!”
Priceless!